For Some Lawmakers, No BlackBerries Is ‘Heaven’

Lawmakers were less inconvenienced than their staff by the BlackBerry outage on Wednesday, despite the key role the device plays in the daily business of Congress.

“It’s been heaven,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) said. “My staff can’t find me, nobody can reach me–only my wife, who I call all the time.” Mr. Leahy added the outage would eventually become a problem, “but I’m enjoying the peace and quiet.”

Research in Motion Ltd. worked Wednesday to overcome service disruptions around the world. The outage–and RIM’s slow response in fixing it–has become the latest corporate embarrassment for the company.

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James Clyburn (D., S.C.) looked at his Blackberry while taking a short break from a Democratic caucus meeting on Capitol Hill, March 19, 2010 in Washington, DC.

U.S. government employees in Washington, including those at the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department, were having intermittent service problems, though it did not appear to be affecting operations. A Treasury Department spokeswoman said employees were going about their normal course of business and that the department was “working with RIM to understand what the impacts are and when they think they will have it resolved.”

Congressional staff faced some logistical problems. During the 12 hours of debate on the Senate floor on three free-trade agreements, staffers working on smoothing out details from the floor had a tough time communicating with aides back in lawmakers’ offices, a Senate aide said.

The outage was not without perks for staff, though. Aides said they were receiving fewer emails, but those that they did receive were better written, coming from people seated at desks. Another aide noted that fewer leaks may have gotten out from the day’s meetings.